Oasis and Brian Wilson in the same post... strange

Well, as the title suggests, I've been listening to Oasis pretty heavily lately. I guess the fact that they are in the studio and under a new contract is bringing them back in my mind. I have been spending some time re-evaluating Standing On the Shoulder of Giants(sic). The "sic" comes from the fact that the Newton quote is actually "... on the shoulders of giants.", but Noel was drunk when he saw it, and wrote it down as "Standing On the Shoulder of Giants - a bum title." That is pretty frickin' hilarious that he kept it. Anywho, I listened to that album twice this week, and today checked out Heathen Chemsitry again. All in all, they are somewhat lazy albums, but have aged better than I remembered them. SOtSoG is over-the-top psychedelic. I saw them on that tour, and remember them having a keyboard player bashing away at a mellotron in the background of the stage. I think it must have been Jay Darlington (of Kula Shaker... more on that later,) as he played on almost all of their albums including the one they are recording now. Aside from that ramble, listening with fresh ears, the album sounds pretty refreshing. Additionally, Heathen Chemistry comes off as very solid, but surprisingly, Noel is the worst songwriter on that effort. Normally I'm all about Noel, but Liam showed him up right proper on that album. Scary, that!

By the way, here's a shot from the proceedings for the 7th studio album by the lads. Notice a very Ringo-like Zak Starkey to the right:






Back to the aforementioned Kula Shaker, their album Strangefolk arrives on this side of the pond in a month or two, and I am damn excited. I downloaded their new EP from iTunes, and cannot wait until the LP comes out here. I'll be damned if I'm gonna order that import from Easy Street, ex-employee discount and all! I saw them at the Metro in Chicago on one of their last gigs before they broke up, and truly miss their increasingly cranky Harrisonesque music. To tie it all together, Jay Darlington no longer plays with them. That's a shame, as he really added a ton to their sound.


As for Mr. Wilson (Dennis!), he is going to be recording That Lucky Old Sun in January. I've yet to download a bootleg of the recent performance, but anything involving Wilson and Wondermints, and I'm sold. Yes, I admit that the Christmas album was almost total ass, but it still sounded great. To be honest, I would love a new Wondermints album, but they are taking one for the team by keeping Brian performing, writing, and healthy. I've yet to track down if they played on "Speed Turtle" with him, but I'm sure some trolling of the usual haunts will turn something up.


Doo-be-do, back to it...